Evan's cd is fun for the whole family!

I recently had a very proud, somewhat awe-inspiring moment with Zamirah. She had gotten a couple of small balls and announced that she was going to juggle them. I do not juggle, but I had given a half-hearted attempt at it at some point in ancient history, and when she had trouble I suggested she start with just one, and toss it up from one hand to the other. Well, Zamirah has never really worked on catching one-handed, so she stuck with two-handed catching. But she tossed it up a few times and was…

We were in the back aisle of the supermarket, and Zamirah (who is now 4) and Zaaryn (2) were both starting to cross that invisible line between antsy and cranky. Zamirah got annoyed at Zaaryn for whatever reason, and walked away from her further down the aisle, with her face scrunched into a very cute scowl and her arms crossed tightly over her chest. So Zaaryn, perhaps believing that Zamirah was annoyed at something other than her, or more likely not really caring, did the sisterly thing, and followed…

I was driving my three-year-old to dance class, expecting a game of 20 Questions or a round of back-and-forth jokes, such as “Why did the elephant go to the doctor?...Because he was sick!” But then Zamirah suddenly burst into an original song, “Rockstar Birthday Tomorrow.” The chorus repeats the line, “What’s with my rockstar birthday tomorrow?” several times. There is even a sort of hip hop-ish bridge which goes, “When can I eat my cake? When can I eat my cake? When can I eat my cake? When can I eat my…

My three-year-old has a wonderful vocabulary. She uses words like “actually” and “embarrassed.” However, she doesn’t yet fully understand the word “embarrassed” (which she learned from Grover in The Monster at the End of this Book). After showering the other night, she told me her feet were embarrassed. I saw that they were wrinkly from being in there for a while, but I’m not exactly sure how “wrinkly” turned into “embarrassed.” We tried to explain to her that it means “feeling silly,” but this has proven…

After giving my daughter, Zamirah, who is 3, a shower tonight, I couldn't find her towel, and gave her a "big people" towel instead. "Big people" is how we say "grown-up" in my house. After all, Zamirah has understood what "big" means for a long time, and size is the obvious difference between her and us grown-ups. And while grown-ups may not being growing "up" anymore, I'm not sure how I feel about the finality of that "grown." It may not be visually apparent, but most of us grown-ups are really still…

Hi, and welcome to the first edition of my blog. I am very glad that you made it here. I am very glad that I made it here as well. I am excited to have a space to share my thoughts about music, kids, creativity, life, the human experience, and really, whatever I feel like sharing.

While thinking about how I initially got here, and by this I mean the pre-creation of my album, three moments will probably always stand out in my memory:

1) I remember being a teenager once upon a time and having the thought…